Secro buys BPO company Intelenet for Rs 2,887 crore

After the acquisition, Serco will merge its Indian BPO business (Serco BPO) with Intelinet which has clients in the private sector around the world and in the domestic Indian market.
From operations in 34 global delivery centres across seven countries, Intelenet provides a broad range of middle and back office services and has a strong customer base of international organisations, predominantly across the financial services, travel, healthcare and telecom sectors, the company said. “This acquisition is in line with Serco’s strategy which is focused on driving organic growth, supplemented by strategic acquisitions of skills and capabilities to enter new markets and sectors where we see strong opportunities to enhance our growth and margins,” Serco Chief Executive Chris Hyman said.

Intelenet, a £170m or Rs 1,275 crore company was originally founded in 2001 as a joint venture between TCS and HDFC.

In 2007 a management buy-out was completed, resulting in the business being majority owned by PE investor Blackstone Group, together with Barclays, HDFC and Intelenet’s management team. According to the industry body Nasscom, Intelenet ranks amongst the top BPO exporters and the leading supplier in the domestic Indian market.  

Said Intelenet Global Services CEO Susir Kumar, “Becoming part of Serco will propel us to our next phase of growth, by helping us to address a wider market and to provide more end-to-end solutions.”

Around three-quarters of Intelenet’s revenue is generated from international BPO, while the balance comes from domestic Indian business.  Intelenet has an order book of around £500m over the next five years, CEO Susir Kumar said.